As an era closes, Barbara Boxer defends politics as a ‘noble’ profession (Ha!)

I actually think it in theory can be if one works to wrestle power away from entrenched interests and to reduce the state. But generally the people who go into politics lust after power which is not a “noble” disposition even if it is a natural one.

Ms. Boxer, despite this loving (and obligatory) sendoff by the LA Times was a classic politician in the classic sense. She sought through her career to take more money for the government and more from taxpayers. There’s nothing ‘noble’ about that.

(From The LA Times)

In 40 years of elective office, Boxer had a role in almost every part of the arc of political activity in California and the nation: the Vietnam War, the environment, AIDS, abortion rights and meat-and-potatoes concerns like roads and freeways.

She will leave in the midst of huge tumult for both political parties, a time when the question in the era of Donald Trump — What happens now? — has no firm answer.